~ Welcome to my world

Weeds

I know that gardeners know the importance about pulling up weeds. But I’m a bit of a novice at this gardening lark. You may have read that an unknown/ unexpected plant I unearthed and dug up last year, turned out to be my forgotten potato crop.

My ‘gardener’ (aka Dad) came around today. So I took the opportunity to ask him about some of the unexpected growth in my front window box. I wondered whether it was curious surprising plant that had sprung up from a seed hidden within his rich compost he’d put down. But no, not this time. He took one look at it and said, “that’s grass.” I really haven’t got a clue.

Then he showed/ told me to trace it down to the soil and pull out the root. He did a few and then I rummaged around and dug out the rest after work. Now I have heard the adage that there’s no such thing as a weed, only a plant in an unwanted place. And with my growing appreciation of wildflowers, I’m all for that. … Apart from something else my Dad said.

I mentioned that I’d planted some rocket and spinach seeds in there. He advised that you’d want to get rid of all the grass/ weeds. Because the rocket needs a lot of light. The weeds were crowding out the space. So I as aware of this as I pulled out the weeds, roots and all (well not entirely, it was a bit of a hash job, I must admit). But it reminded me of that verse in Hebrews, “See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” Pulling up weeds and their roots can be analogous to life- it’s not a new thing!

If there’s important stuff in your life (analogy here with the rocket seeds I’d planted), it’s important to give them enough space. To cut out the unwanted, unnecessary in your life if possible, to make room for that which is important. I’m kind of going on the “less is more” life lesson phase again at the moment. The grass may be pretty and all very good. There might be countless opportunities and good things/ nice things/ enjoyable things that you could be doing in life. But if they are crowding out that which needs to be nurtured, developed, focussed on, (the rocket here), then don’t be afraid about being ruthless in letting go.

In the recycling bin today has gone an invite to a do I decided to turn down, because I can’t do everything, I need to conserve my energies for particular things. (One book I’ve nearly finished but ironically been to ‘busy’ to read for the last year or so, has been this one. Tis good, I recommend, especially if reading Christian books is your thing!) Next task, fine tuning what are the rocket seeds in life to focus on and nurture. And not be scared to get rid of the dross.